Saturday 20th October

Attendance: 4

This weekend should have been a Co-bo working weekend but as there was some outstanding work from the recent work week on D8233 to refit the 2” Vacuum Pipe system it was decided to continue with that job with the hope of finishing it off, first Jason & Adam used the Hydraulic pipe bender to bend a 2” pipe, it was a tricky task to accomplish but eventually they managed to bend the pipe to something matching the plans that they had, after this they went up to Castlecroft to get breakfast and while there they met up with Stephen Smith a new volunteer who wanted to help out, together and with the help of Andy Hardman they moved the bolster off the Co-Bo's Bo bogies inside the workshop, Adam and Stephen would stay at Castlecroft to continue with some painting on the Bo-bogie while Jason returned to Baron St to start work on the Vac system, Down at the workshop container Jason set about using the pipe threading machine to thread the remaining pipe required to complete the 2” Vac pipe system, one being the nose end stand pipe that needed extended threads cutting at one end, later on Dave Pendleton arrived at the container and gave Jason a hand forming the remaining pipes, once the 2” stuff was done Adam & Stephen then joined them at the container and Jason cut up some lengths of ¾” pipe that will be used for the Exhauster drain pipes that have yet to be fitted to the loco, the some of the remaining fittings were attached to the pipes, by this time it was later afternoon and the others had to depart, while Jason took all the bare metal pipes back to the support coach where he painted them all into green primer, and so ended the days efforts.

Sunday 21 st October

Attendance: 4

Today began with Jason cutting and threading a short piece of ½” pipe that he would need later for the nose end stand pipe, after Adam & Dave P had arrived, they manhandled the fire bottle around to the works door then placed it on the works pallet truck for the rest of the trip to the loco, while Adam and Dave saw about lifting the Fire bottle into its position on the loco, Jason went down to the work shop container and fitted together the pipe assembles they would need for the jobs they had planned today, on return to the loco with the pipe the R/H exhauster pipe was mock fitted but soon a problem immerged in that the curve pipe on the exhauster side was not curved enough and was fouling the fire bottle so it was removed and Adam & Dave agreed to continue to mock up the pipe using other spares bits of pipe that were to hand, meanwhile Phil had arrived and he and Jason got set up on the front buffer beam to clean it up ready for the vac pipework to be fitted, starting with Jason unbolting the dummy Multiple working socket and removing it, after fetching the gunning gear Phil set about needle gunning the area of the front buffer beam where the vac pipe would go, Adam and Dave had managed to get another Exhauster pipe mocked up, but the angles were not quite right so they took it off and tried again, After Phil had done gunning the front buffer beam, he moved to the rear of the loco to needle gun the vac pipe on the rear buffer beam but first he removed the old original vac bag that was in poor condition and in need of replacement, Jason meanwhile had used an angle grinder to grind off all the unsightly welds from the ETH jumper brackets and then after a quick drell he primer painted the patch on the front buffer beam, Jason then test fitted the curve pipe that goes under the floor of the front nose end but found the pipe to too long on short side and too short on the long side and would need much adjustment to put right, Phil meanwhile had run into some technical problem with the needle gun and had to stop, with Adam and Dave in need of some 45 deg angle fittings to finish off the exhauster pipe they all agreed to stop for lunch.

After lunch Phil had to depart leaving the three remaining guys moving into the cap of the loco to try and complete the cab pipe work, the pipe crosses over from one side to the other runs inside the cab and it has a tapered union fitting on each end that need to be adjusted to take up the slack in the pipe, firstly getting the pipe to fit at all was a challenge but eventually they did it, but they could not properly adjust the union joints as they did not have a suitable spanner large enough to fit so they had to take a rain check on that job, next they fitted the flanges on top of the stand pipes for the brake handles but in doing so they found that the take off boss for the vacuum gauge on the No1 end stand pipe had twisted out of alignment and this would have to adjusted another time, next the pipe that passes through the front of the cab bulkhead to the exhausters was fitted, Adam volunteered to crouch into the small gab between the L/H exhauster and generator to try and thread in the pipe but he had some difficulty in getting in started, eventually it was in but sadly when the stand pipe to the Vacuum cut off valve was offered up it was found to be too long and would also need further adjustment but time was getting on and the guys called it a day, it had been a mildly frustrating as nothing we had started quite worked out the way that we had wanted but work on the Vac system would resume next time.

If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton